Teaching approaches

PISA provides some contextual information about school activities designed to promote the learning of science. The percentage of New Zealand students in schools (that accord- ing to principals) promoted engagement through excursions and field trips, science com- petitions, extra-curricular science projects and science fairs was above the OECD mean for each category.

PISA also collected information on teaching from students. New Zealand 15 year olds reported greater use of interactive teaching approaches (activities that are designed to stimulate discussion) compared with either the use of models and applications, or hands on activities. This pattern was similar across the OECD countries.

TIMSS 98/99 created an index of teachers emphasis on scientific reasoning and problem solving based on teachers’ reports of how often they asked students to explain the rea-

soning behind an idea, represent and analyse relationships using tables and graphs, work on problems for which no immediate solution was obvious, write an explanation of an observation and describe why it happened, and put events or objects in order and give a reason for the organisation. On average, internationally 16% of Year 9 teachers placed a high value on these scientific reasoning and problem solving skills whereas just 4% of New Zealand’s teachers did so. This may have changed in the past decade but we are unaware of evidence that suggests that it has.

The age-16 phase of the longitudinal Competent Children, Competent Learners study found science (and maths) teachers were less likely than teachers of other subjects to identify any of the following features of their class:

• We have lots of fun.

• Students do a lot of group activities and discussions.

• Students have the opportunity to act on issues that concern them. • Students are encouraged to assess others’ work and give them feedback. • Students are encouraged to lead group projects/ class activities.

• Students interact with people outside school as part of their school work.

There are a number of recent New Zealand PhD theses that address issues related to how science is taught and these may be able to add useful insights especially given the some- what patchy evidence currently available.

3.7. In summary

The evidence we have available about achievement and engagement is mixed. If we ac- cept that an important outcome of science education is that nearly everyone engages positively with science, then the high proportion of New Zealand students who do not want to continue with science beyond the point when it is no longer compulsory is cause for concern. Although we have a higher proportion of top performers in science than in many other countries our achievement data also reveal too many students leave formal education having gained little from their science education.

If the main aim of science education is to provide a supply of future scientists then we can be relatively happy with the how well New Zealand’s top students are performing but perhaps less comfortable with how well informed our students are about career choices and their ambivalence about taking up science related careers. The strong link between students’ socio-economic background and achievement in science, and the over-repre- sentation of some groups among the low achievers means that some groups are more excluded from science than others and this has implications both for the diversity of our science workforce and for issues of social justice.

On the other hand New Zealand students’ relative strengths in identifying scientific issues and using scientific evidence (as identified in PISA) could be seen as a positive sign that we are equipping students well for a future where many of the issues they will face are as yet unknown.

Science education as currently delivered does not seem to be preparing students as well as it could either for careers in science or as citizens who can confidently engage with science related issues. However, even if students were doing extremely well on current measures the question remains whether doing more of the same (or even doing it better) meets the needs of our changing world. In the next chapter we review changes in society, work and young people, changes in the purpose of schooling and in science itself.

3.8. Notes to Section 3

Page A-25

The Ministry of Education website referred to is: www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publica- tions/series/2303

The ‘researcher definition’ on page A-26 is taken from Newman, F. (1992). Student En- gagement and Achievement in American Secondary Schools. New York: Teachers College Press (p.2-3).

The comprehensive review of research on student engagement referred to on page A-26 is: Fredericks, J., Blumenfeld, P. & Paris, A. (2004). School engagement: Potential of the concept, state of evidence. Review of Educational Research, 74(1), 59-105.

Achievement Page A-26

For more information on the sources for the statements made on this page, see Appendix 1.

See Telford, M. (2010) PISA 2006 Scientific literacy: How ready are our 15 year olds for tomorrow’s world? Wellington: Ministry of Education for more information on New Zea- land’s large spread in achievement.

Page A-27

For the data on Year 5 science achievement see: Caygill, R. (2008a). Science: trends in year

5 science achievement 1994 to 2006. Wellington: Ministry of Education.

Page A-29

The source of the Ministry of Education data on participation and achievement in science at Year 11 is: Ministry of Education (2007) Boys’ achievement: A synthesis of the data. Wel- lington: Ministry of Education.

Page A-30

The source of the data on socio-economic background and achievement are Caygill (2008a) op. cit. and Crooks, T., Smith, J., & Flockton, L. (2008) Science assessment results 2007: NEMP report 44. Wellington: Ministry of Education

See Telford (2010) op. cit for the data on gender differences, Caygill (2008a) op. cit. for the data on the differences between immigrants and New Zealand born students, and Telford (2010) op. cit. for the data on the links between frequent school movement and achieve- ment.

See also Appendix 1: Achievement data, point 5 for more information.

Engagement

The sources of the information on student attitudes to and interest in science were Caygill (2008a) op. cit., Telford (2010) op. cit. and Caygill, R. (2008b). PISA 2006: Student attitudes to and engagement with science. Wellington: Ministry of Education. See also Appendix 1: Achievement data point 3 for more information.

For the Competent Learners study see Wylie, C., & Hipkins, R. (2006). Growing Independ- ence: Competent Learners @14. Wellington: New Zealand Council for Educational Re- search; and Wylie, et al (2008) op.cit.

See also Appendix 1: Achievement data point 6 for more information about students’ at- titudes to science.

Career aspirations Page A-31

The information on the extent to which students aspire to science-related careers comes from OECD (2009) Top of the class: High performers in science in PISA 2006http://www.

oecd.org/dataoecd/44/17/42645389.pdf.

The recent New Zealand research on school subject combinations and career aspirations in Year 13 is: Hipkins, R., Roberts, J., Bolstad, R. and Ferral, H. (2006). Staying in science 2:

Transition to tertiary study from the perspectives of New Zealand Year 13 science students. Research carried out for the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology. Wellington: NZCER http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/series/2303.

The New Zealand information on children’s attitudes to and interest in science comes from the NEMP, Competent Learners and Staying in Science studies (op. cit.). For Australian data see: Tytler, R. (2007). Re-imagining science education: Engaging students in science for Australia’s future. Camberwell: Australian Council for Educational Research http://

www.acer.edu.au/documents/AER51_ReimaginingSciEdu.pdf.

Time

See Caygill (2008a) op. cit.

Page A-32

The NEMP (op. cit.) study is the source for the comments on students’ perceptions of the ‘interestingness’ of school science. For the relationship between time studying science and achievement see: Telford (op. cit.), p46.

The reminder that schools are not the only context in which students learn sci- ence comes from OECD (2007) PISA 2006: Science competencies for tomor- row’s world. Volume 1: Analysis http://www.oecd.org/document/2/0,3343,

Quality

The sources for the comments on primary teacher knowledge are: Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (2007) http://www.iea.nl/timss2007.html; and Education Review Office (2010). Science in Years 5-8: Capable and Competent Teaching. Wellington: Author.

The comment about New Zealand primary teachers’ relative lack of specialisation and pro- fessional development in science come from Caygill, R., Lang, K., & Cowles, S. (2010) The school context for Year 5 students’ mathematics and science achievement in 2006: New Zealand results from TIMSS. Wellington: Ministry of Education.

The source of the comment on the lack of policy attention to the teaching of science is Wylie, C., Cameron, M., McDowall, S., Twist, J., and Fisher, J. (forthcoming) Sustaining

School Development in New Zealand Primary Schools.

The comments about supply of secondary science teachers come from Schagen, S., & Wylie, C. (2009) School resources, culture and connections: NZCER National Survey The- matic Report. Wellington: New Zealand Council for Educational Research.

Lee, M. (2010) Monitoring teacher supply: Survey of staffing in New Zealand schools at the beginning of the 2010 school year. Ministry of Education: Wellington. Retrieved from

www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/series/2519.

Organisation Page A-33

For information on the types of science courses students are enrolled in see: Caygill & Sok (2008) op.cit.

Ministry of Education data from 2009 “roll returns” show approximately 48,000 Year 11 students were enrolled in science; approximately 4,000 students in biology; 3,000 in phys- ics; 2,700 in chemistry. Retrieved from www.educationcounts.govt.nz/statistics/schooling. For more information about the range of science courses available in senior secondary school see Hipkins et al (2006) op. cit.

The ‘snapshot’ survey of secondary schools in 2007 is: Hipkins, R. (2007). Course innova- tion in the senior secondary curriculum: A snapshot taken in July 2007. Wellington: New Zealand Council for Educational Research.

Teaching approaches

The source of the information on the low value given by New Zealand teachers to scientific reasoning and problem solving skills is: Baker, R. & Jones, A. (2005). TIMSS and PISA in sci- ence education. International Journal of Science Education, 27(2), 145-157.

The reference to the age-16 phase of Competent Children, Competent Learners study is Wylie et al (2008) op. cit.